Arctic Regions in 1995

The Arctic regions may be defined in physical terms (astronomical [north of the Arctic Circle, latitude 66° 30’ N], climatic [above the 10° C (50° F) July isotherm], or vegetational [above the northern limit of the tree line]) or human (the territory inhabited by the circumpolar cultures--Inuit, or Eskimo, and Aleut in North America; Saami, or Lapp, in northern Scandinavia; and, west to east, Uralic, Paleosiberian, Middle Asian, and Arctic peoples in northern Russia). No single national sovereignty or treaty regime governs the region, which includes portions of seven countries: Canada, the United States, Russia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Greenland (part of Denmark). The Arctic Ocean, 14,090,000 sq km (5,440,000 sq mi) in area, constitutes about two-thirds of the region, the remaining land area consisting of permanent ice cap, tundra, or taiga. Population (1995 est.) of peoples belonging to the circumpolar cultures, 1,260,000. International organizations concerned with the Arctic include: Arctic Environmental Protection Strategy, Council of the Euro-Arctic Region, International Arctic Committee, International Arctic Science Committee, and the Inuit Circumpolar Conference.

In September 1995 U.S. Pres. Bill Clinton considered blocking development of the so-called 1002 lands in the energy-rich Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on the Alaska-Yukon border. The 1002 lands, 607,000 ha (1.5 million ac) of territory along the Beaufort Sea, were thought to contain one of the last great unexplored oil fields in the U.S. The move to declare the area a national monument was well received by the Canadian government, which had established the Ivavvik National Park on the Canadian side of the border in 1984 to prevent oil and gas developments. Development pressure from the energy industry had increased as production and revenues from the massive Prudhoe Bay oil fields to the west of the refuge dwindled. Recent studies, however, had concluded that the oil reserves might be only half of the previously estimated 3.2 billion gal of oil and that oil and gas development would be more disruptive to wildlife, vegetation, and the native communities of Alaska and Yukon than previously believed.

During 1995 further progress was made in the political development of Canada’s Northwest Territories. The split of the territories into two separate regions--and the dividing of assets and the debt of the existing government--were major issues in the October election. The Northwest Territories were scheduled to be divided by April 1, 1999, into an eastern territory--Nunavut--and a new, yet-unnamed western territory. At the beginning of the year, Joe Clark, former prime minister of Canada, chaired a conference that attempted to forge a set of constitutional principles for the new western territory, with a population of about 35,000 people. The central question that was addressed at the conference was the division of power between communities and the regional and central governments. Meanwhile, the 23,000 residents of the eastern Arctic were engaged in planning for the eventual carrying out of self-government in Nunavut.

In February a native lands-claim settlement between Ottawa and the Yukon was proclaimed in which 8,000 Yukon Indians would receive Can$242.6 million over 15 years in income from some nonrenewable resources and also ownership of 41,439 sq km (16,000 sq mi) of land. The agreement also entrenched the rights of Indians to harvest wildlife and guaranteed them up to 50% representation on boards responsible for land-use, fish and wildlife management, and renewable resource developments.

In October the Quebec Cree and the Inuit populations held their own referenda to decide whether to remain in Canada, should Quebec decide to establish a separate country. The Cree and Inuit voted overwhelmingly to remain in Canada. Under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement, the native populations had acquired defined rights to approximately 400,000 sq km (154,000 sq mi) of traditional lands in northern and Arctic Quebec. Earlier in the year the government of Quebec had declared that it would not respect the outcome of any native-run referendum that gave aboriginal communities a mandate to secede from an independent Quebec. In spite of these constitutional differences, Falconbridge in October signed a deal with the Quebec government to invest about Can$495 million in a mine in Nunavik, the Inuit territory in the north of the province.

In July the Inuit and Innu peoples of Labrador began negotiations on a partnership proposal with several giant mining companies to develop the Voisey Bay mineral discovery. The mine site was located on Labrador’s remote northern coast, in a region that was the focus of overlapping land claims by Labrador’s 4,000 Inuit and 1,500 Innu. In October new mineral discoveries by Diamond Fields Resources suggested that the area might become one of the world’s major sources of nickel.

In February Greenland threatened to cut its ties to Denmark after Denmark reportedly proposed cutting the island’s annual subsidy of about $700 million to just $17 million. The threat was seen more as a sign of frustration than intent because semi-independent Greenland was heavily dependent upon Danish aid and such administrative services as foreign policy, defense, and justice. According to Danish authorities, they sought to reduce the subsidy because Greenland’s economy was in sound shape. In 1993, for example, the island had a surplus of $32 million.

In the face of concerns about the possible collapse of the fishing industry, it was reported in September that the Greenland government was looking at mining and tourism as alternative economic developments. Fishing, which had been the mainstay of Greenland since the island attained full self-government from Denmark in 1979, had helped the Greenlanders become the most industrially developed of the indigenous Arctic societies. More than 5,000 workers were involved in the fishing industry, which brought in about $625,000 annually to Greenland and accounted for almost all its exports. The decline in the industry was being blamed on changes in the environment, overfishing, and bad economic planning that had transferred small-scale fishing activities and people out of tiny settlements into the larger settlements.

In June participants in the International Arctic Social Science Conference, held in Finland, concluded that Arctic pollution and development were endangering the environment and the lifestyles of the indigenous peoples. It was proposed that "an umbrella organization . . . be created that would be responsible for . . . deciding claims of all parties relating to Arctic pollution." New procedures to analyze the impacts of Arctic pollution were required because existing agreements were not enforceable. The proposal emerged because of concerns about damage to the environment and to native peoples of Russia.

Time magazine reported that the complex of smelters in Russia’s central Siberian city of Norilsk was perhaps the largest source of air pollution in the world, pumping two million tons of sulfur, along with other poisons, into the air each year. Industrial emissions from Siberia were thought to be contributing significantly to the threat of global warming. Kenneth de la Barre

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